Interlude
by DancingKirby
Summary: Missing scene from Part 2 of the epilogue of Into Open Waters. What happened while Eska was out of the room at the birthing center?


A/N: In IOW, I tried to give each of the three "pairings" a roughly equal amount of time alone together, but hardly anyone writes Bopal as a main pairing, so I thought, why not write another scene devoted just to them?

* * *

Bolin, Opal, and Suyin all looked up at the sound of the door closing, and glanced over to see that Eska's spot on the bed to Opal's left was now vacated. Suyin's nostrils flared.

"If she thinks that she can just up and leave without so much as _saying anything_…" she began.

"Mom. She _can_," Opal interjected. "She was here for hours on end, with all the noise and talking, and she obviously needed to go cool down."

"Should I go check on her?" Bolin asked. "Make sure she's okay?"

"I'd recommend giving it a while. She needs her quiet time," Opal answered. Having settled the matter, the two of them turned their attention back to San, whose initial lung-filling wails had quieted down to grumbling as An the midwife loosely wrapped him in a towel.

"He's beautiful," Bolin murmured. He knew that he'd already said that, but there wasn't anything wrong with saying it multiple times, right? "And so are _you_." The front part of his wife's hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat, the back part was sticking out every which way, and her eyes had dark circles under them. Bolin thought that it was possibly the most wonderful thing he had ever seen.

"Well, I don't know about me, but _he_ definitely is," Opal commented as she stroked the fine fuzz on her baby's head. "He took his time getting here, but he's my beautiful baby boy. All mine. Oh, and yours too, of course," she added to Bolin.

At that moment, An cleared her throat and said, "Well, it's time to cut the cord. Dad, would you like to do the honors?"

Bolin thought at first that the midwife was talking about her own father, and he looked all over the room for a really, _really_ old guy. It was only when Suyin prompted him by saying his name that he realized: Oh yeah. _He_ was the dad. Of course, he'd known that already since this wasn't even his first kid, but Kinalik preferred to call him by his given name and he had a tendency to let her. Thus, someone actually addressing him as "Dad" was a bit jarring.

"Uh…sure," he finally replied. An put the clamps on and showed him where to cut, and he got through the whole thing on his very first try. Everyone applauded politely. Shortly thereafter, Opal's nose wrinkled a bit, An pressed on her abdomen with one hand while pulling on the severed cord with the other, and…

"Did her _guts just fall out_?" Bolin cried, painfully aware that his voice had gotten higher and higher until it was a nearly inaudible squeak by the end of the sentence.

"That's the afterbirth, Bolin," Suyin explained like this should be perfectly obvious to anyone. "It's _supposed_ to come out. In fact, it's a very bad thing if it doesn't."

"Oh," Bolin mumbled, looking down at his shoes.

"_Mom_," Opal warned again, her voice nearly a growl this time. Even Suyin looked surprised, and was briefly at a loss for words.

"She's right," the older woman conceded when she found her voice again. "I shouldn't have used that tone with you. I'm sorry."

That was his Opal, all right: normally patient and gentle and introverted, yet terrifying when that patience ran out. Bolin squeezed her hand in gratitude. However, his heart plummeted again when Opal's teeth started chattering despite the room being well-heated.

"Oh, honey, you're getting chills. Why didn't you say that you were cold?" Suyin said quickly. She did not have to tell Bolin what to do next; he had already grabbed a blanket from the stack near the bed. Opal's mother gave him a nod of thanks, and told him, "Be sure to wrap that nice and snugly…and around San, too."

Meanwhile, An was examining that big, red, angry…_thing_…and confirmed that it had all come out in one piece. Then she stepped into the smaller room off the main one that was strictly off-limits to non-employees of this birthing center, and returned bearing several small, pointy instruments. Opal groaned in dismay.

"She doesn't like needles," Bolin explained as he and Suyin finished tucking the blanket corners in.

"I'm sorry. She has a tear that needs repairing," An said briskly. And, to Opal, "You don't have to worry. It looks to be fairly uncomplicated as far as these things go, and should be able to be fixed in a few minutes. And I will give you a shot that will numb the area. You might not feel anything whatsoever if you're focused enough on your baby. Just be sure to hold still."

Opal held on tight to Bolin's hand once again. Although she yelped a bit during the shot, the numbing medicine appeared to do the trick. Suyin had moved towards the back of the room to give An some space (was it wrong that he felt a little relieved?), so Bolin decided that he would help distract Opal in the way that he knew best: talking about the first things that came to his mind.

"I want to buy you something," he said in a rush. "Anything you want. Even if it's the most expensive necklace at the most expensive jewelry store in Republic City. Or…or…that humongous toy stuffed armadillo bear that you thought looked cute while we were shopping for stuff for San's room. Or…"

He was cut off by Opal placing a finger against his mouth.

"You don't have to buy me anything," she said with a confused look on her face. "Why would you think that?"

It was a good question. Bolin had always had trouble putting his feelings into words, especially when they were all jumbled into a huge knot like this. Thinking very hard, he started, "Well, you went through all that, and I feel bad that I have nothing to give you in return. And I guess…"–he finally had his epiphany mid-sentence– "It doesn't seem fair that I only did the one part at the beginning, and you had to do all the hard work. And then you were in labor for I don't know how long, and _then_ you got hurt while doing it, and, and…I just love you so much. Him too, of course."

He kissed each in turn, before adding, "I think I'm starting to cry again," as he once again rubbed at his damp eyes with his equally damp sleeve.

"You're sweet," Opal replied, looking a bit teary-eyed herself. "But you don't have to worry about me. I decided to have your baby because I wanted to; I didn't feel any kind of obligation. And it's true that the labor was more difficult than I was expecting, but I knew going in that it wasn't all going to be a walk in the park. Besides, I enjoyed being pregnant overall…and there _were_ perks." At Bolin's confused silence, Opal leaned over and clarified in a whisper, "The sex was great, with both you and Eska."

"Oh," was all Bolin could come up with in response. Most other times, he would have preened himself on the praise, but his brain was fried from staying up all night.

"If you still really want to buy me something…I could always use more books. Eska can help you find some if you want. Just…don't go overboard," Opal said.

"Is ten going overboard?"

Opal gave a drowsy smile. "Ten would be great."

She looked like she was on the verge of drifting off, needle and all, so Bolin simply held her in silence until An announced, "Done! See, that wasn't so bad, was it? Now let's get mom and baby all clean and bundled up."

And so An measured, cleaned, and swaddled San, while Suyin helped Opal into her new nightgown and bathrobe and redid the blanket. Then, at long last, Bolin got to hold his son. It was exhilarating and nerve-wracking all at the same time. Bolin had never held a newborn infant before, and although San was a sizable baby, he was still so fragile.

"Uh…question. How do I not drop him?" Bolin asked.

Suyin, not looking concerned in the slightest, replied, "Keep supporting his head and bottom, and everything should be fine."

And it was. But _now_ what was he supposed to do? He thought about this, and after several seconds recalled from one of Opal's classes that it was important to talk to babies so they could start building up their language skills for later.

"So…uh…hi. I'm your dad," he began; it was still weird to say it. "And over there are your mom and grandma. And you're San, obviously."

Opal giggled a bit. Bolin looked over, worried that he messed it up, but she assured him, "Keep going. You're doing great."

"Right. So of course, there's Eska too. She's going to be like a second mom to you, and to be honest she's the only one of us who knows what she's doing. And Ki's back at the house. She's your half-sister, although we really aren't going to make that–what's the word?–distinction. And she can't wait to meet you; it's pretty much been all she's talked about for the past two months! And there's also Baatar Senior and Baatar Junior and Huan and Wing and Wei. You'll meet Mako and Grandma Yin and all the rest on my side of the family in a couple months when we get back to Republic City."

San peered up at him somberly; he had completely quieted down by now.

"Oh, and you'll get to see Korra and Asami too; they have this awesome pool, and Asami saved all her toys from when she was a kid. And you'll probably be going to Air Temple Island a lot. _And_, in a couple years, you can come to the pro-bending arena and hear me commentating some games…"

He broke off because San was starting to fuss again.

"Already decided you don't like pro-bending, huh?" Bolin mused. He looked up and asked, "No, seriously, did I do something wrong?"

"I think it's more likely that he's ready to try to nurse," An replied. "If you would…"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, here you are." Bolin handed San back to the midwife, who gave him back to Opal in turn. As they started the process of assisting San with latching on, Bolin began to feel like this was a special moment between only Opal and her baby, and didn't want to intrude.

"Should I see how Eska's doing?" he asked. "Or did you want me to stay here longer?"

"Go on ahead," Opal said, wincing slightly as San apparently found his target. Bolin felt a little anxious, and his face must have showed it, since she added, "I'm fine. It just takes a little getting used to."

"Okay then. I'll be back soon. Hopefully with Eska."

Bolin hoped that he wouldn't have to walk all around the building to retrieve her. To his relief, as he cautiously opened the door a bit to look out, he saw that their wife was sitting only a few doors down the hallway. She looked up at the noise of the hinges, and he was further happy to see no evidence that she had been in crying or otherwise in major distress.

"Hey," he said to her, "What's up?"


End file.
